The Environmental Audit Committee (EAC) has issued its report on growing the circular economy, following an inquiry and a call for evidence in March 2014.

Published on July 24, the report makes a number of recommendations to the government, including banning food waste to landfill, reforming the PRN system, lowering VAT on recycled products and providing clear guidance to local authorities to standardise recycling collections in England.

The Committee also criticised the government’s lack of “ambition and leadership” on the circular economy, and called on Defra to support the EU’s proposed 70% recycling target and use some of the money generated from landfill tax to “reverse the cuts in WRAP’s funding”.

Chair of the EAC, Joan Walley MP said: “We had throwaway economics in the past, but that disposable society simply isn’t sustainable in the twenty-first century. Less than half of all the stuff we throw away each year is recycled and turned back into something useful, despite prices for raw materials rising across the world.”